So-Ra-No-Wo-To – 08

Every half-year, headquarters calls the telephone inside the fort to test if it still works. Since it’s that time again, Kanata volunteers to stay by the phone all day and wait for the call. The problem that soon develops for her though is that all the other girls have to go off-site to take care of business or, in Noel’s case, are nowhere to be found. Thus, when things come up, such as the need to bring in the laundry because it has started raining, Kanata is left to do it herself, all while keeping an eye on the phone. To further complicate the matter, Mishio, Seiya, and the priest come to see her, and Mishio trying to catch the owl sets off a series of events that almost causes the phone to fall on the ground. Fortunately, Yumina arrives and helps Kanata clean up, and she gives Kanata a change of clothes in the form of a dress. After Yumina and company leave, Kanata realizes that she needs to use the restroom, but she’s forced to hold it in because she takes her duty of watching the phone seriously. Right when Kanata is at her limit, Rio returns from a merchant guild meeting, and Kanata is able to head to the bathroom. The phone, however, rings while she’s gone, so Rio is the one who ends up answering it. Rio recognizes the man on the other end, and after confirming the phone line works, he specifically asks her to save the country. Kanata meanwhile falls and then discovers that Noel was sleeping in the bathroom all day, and before she can go in, Filicia and Kureha return. Not realizing what’s going on, the two try to help Kanata up, leading to disastrous results.

Preview

I wasn’t sure after last week’s great episode if they were going to go back to the light-hearted stuff or if the rest of the series was going to be serious. The answer – for this week anyway – is more the former than the latter. And based on how excited I was about the direction the series was going, I have to say that I was at least a little disappointed. Certainly there were a number of interesting parts, like the mention of the cease-fire agreement difficulties, the trumpet book signed by Iliya Arkadia, and most importantly, the phone conversation Rio had at the end of the episode (I would guess that was her father or some family member on the other end). However for the most part, the episode was about Kanata waiting to answer the phone, the distractions that befell her, and how she tried not to pee all over herself. It was cute, and I got a laugh out of the priest covered in girls’ underwear, but it’s not the type of episode I was hoping to see more of after last week, especially given the short nature of the series. Perhaps the typhoon related stuff next week will be better in that regard.

Y’know, I’m leaning toward Rio and Iria (sp?) being half-sisters. The home Rio grew up in as a child looked pretty pedestrian. Even if the country has gone to hell in a handbasket you’d expect the Queen to have a waiting maid or two and a decent health care plan. At a guess I’d say Rio and her mother were shunted off to the side while Iria and her mother took the spotlight. That would explain Rio’s bitterness toward her father and how she gets away with slumming as a sergeant major/bootlegger over in Seize instead of serving as an officer at HQ.

…just a thought: I doubt we’ll find out how Kanata found out about the bootlegging operation until one of the 2 bonus episodes. The way it came up in Episode 8 has that feel about it.

Looking at the screen caps, seeing Noel cry is very intriguing seeing as initially came off as the ‘Ayanami’ type. Though by Episode 4 that typical archetype shattered. I’m guessing the tank is either being taken away, moved or overhauled by military personnel coming into town accompanied by Claus.

While I never got that filler-ish feel from this episode (though it was a filler), this could have been covered in a couple of scenes. Nothing really happened, and Kanata was separated from the other leads so there wasn’t any character development. Maybe it would have been better if they switched between what we saw here and what the other groups were doing, as this was essentially what episode 6 would have looked like if we just stuck with Kanata.

This is still my favorite series from the new season, but this episode was a step back from what we had last week. There are only five episodes left, so if they are going to tip this show down the spiral of darkness, they need to start soon. Maybe if it were a 24 episode series or if it were one of the two OVA episodes they just announced, but…

@Orion
I think the first of those episodes will be about Seiya warming up to the military girls, as it was never explained in episode 7 why he was suddenly so friendly with them. And it’s going to be packaged with episode 7, so…yeah.

Not enough Noel!!! A whole day sleeping in the bath she must be sore all over. Kanata Moe all over and she hasn’t used a copper line telephone ??!! the mystery with the communications keeps going. I just have a question that some of you will konw the answer. Whose pantsu was on the priest head ? :)

They keep forcing the sugar coated war environment upon us I think that’s what gives the mixed feeling for the series. All the bad things of the war are there but they keep showing fun stuff. I still think this is a M*A*S*H feeling, we laugh but bad things keep happeing around.

I’m not happy with next episode Noel Crying ?? They better don’t hurt her grrrr

The ending was hilarious!!! I was eating and laughing at the same time. My mom turned to look at me like I was crazy. This is my favorite anime that I looked forward to every week, and hopefully they’ll make another season.